Thursday, September 29, 2016

New assessment revealed major areas of improvement in water and
sanitation service provision in Sindh, discussed by urban service providers

A new capacity assessment revealed major areas that
need improvement in urban water and sanitation service delivery in Sindh –
following the increase in demand for municipal services as identified in the
Willingness to Pay (WTP) Survey conducted by UN-Habitat earlier this year. In
order for the Government of Sindh to harness demand for water and sanitation
services, building the capacity of Sindh urban service providers is a key
element, therefore UN-Habitat arranged
an exposure visit to Water and Sanitation Services, Peshawar (WSSP), which has
effectively improved service delivery through initiation of proper mechanisms
and social mobilization.

Conducted by the Sustainable Development Policy
Institute (SPDI) and United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) with
funding from USAID through United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the
capacity assessment exercise was discussed at an exposure visit in Peshawar last
week. The visit is apart of multiple projects that seek to mobilize communities
to improve Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) services in Sindh. It is a collaborative
effort between UN-Habitat, UNICEF, North Sindh Urban Services Corporation
Limited (NSUSC), Sukkur, the Municipal Services Delivery Program (MSDP),
Government of Sindh, Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), Hyderabad,Water and
Sanitation Services Peshawar (WSSP), and USAID.

The capacity assessment identified that service
providers in Sindh are facing challenges regarding timely collection of solid
waste management, recovery of unpaid bills, maintenance of fixed assets or
inventory register, and also need to build capacity to centrally control the
supporting departments. The workshop
contained technical sessions on addressing the
challenges and included visits to operational sites which revealed
state-of-the-art methods adopted by WSSP and positive social mobilization for
better and improved services to meet the increased demand. The exercise aimed to
support the Government of Sindh in taking necessary steps to ensure effective
running of MSDP, WASA Hyderabad, and NSUSC and devising necessary actions to
improve services in Sindh by learning from Peshawar’s urban service providers.

According to the press statement by Khanzeb, Chief
Executive Officer–Water and Sanitation Services, Peshawar, “Successful municipal service delivery is a challenge for local
government institutions. In many parts of the country, existing facilities for
water supply, solid waste management, and sanitation are ineffective and
require immediate corrective measures. WSSP is continuously improving its
services and through this workshop, we aim to facilitate learning of other urban
service providers and extend our support to UN-Habitat, UNICEF, and USAID to
improve municipal service delivery in Sindh.”

He further added:“Equipped with the necessary knowledge andexpertise, Pakistan will be a
step closer to eradicating the concerns of the masses by setting up an effective
and modern WASH services structure.”

Irfan S. Alrai – Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
(WASH) Specialist stated: "UNICEF is in the process of
increasing its efforts to address urban WASH issues, taking into account the
needs of urban service providers as well as their comparative advantages to
tackle specific urban WASH challenges. UNICEF with the support of UN-Habitat
and other partners is supporting the community mobilization component of the
MSDP. Building the capacity of local authorities and service providers, with
the objective of making them perform better, both with the aim to improve
services for the urban dwellers in the City of Jacobabad but also at the scale
of the city to improve overall sustainability and reliability is an important
objective of the programme. The national exposure visit to WSSP is an important
cross-learning event which will generate knowledge and evidence on pro poor
service delivery approaches being implemented by WSSP and will help Sindh based
service providers like NSUSC, MSDP and WASA Hyderabad to learn from good
practices and replicate them in their respective jurisdictions"

Syed MohsinNazar, Director – Finance, WASA
Hyderabad said:“This type of exposure
visit will be help full for all water utilities to exchange and learn more for
preparing sustainable policies for future.”

Mian Muhammad Junaid, Basic Services Manager– UN-Habitat
remarked:"Successful public service
delivery systems require sustainable and efficient management of WASH services,
along with responsible social mobilization and behavioral change communication
with the public. We hope that this capacity building exercise will help the
urban service providers of Sindh improve service delivery and harness demand
for water and sanitation services. UN-Habitat is thankful to WSSP for their
continued support for the betterment of WASH services in Pakistan.”

The three-day exposure visit was conducted from
September 21-23, 2016. The capacity assessment was instrumental in identifying
areas of improvement and allowed urban service provides to evaluate the
on-ground scenario of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) services in
Peshawar.

About UN-Habitat:

The United Nations Human
Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is mandated by the UN General Assembly to
promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal
of providing adequate shelter for all. It is the focal point for all
urbanization and human settlement matters within the UN system.UN-Habitat
renewed its presence in Pakistan in late 2005 following the devastating
earthquake in the north of the country and has since then been supporting the
Government at all levels through its humanitarian and development work. At
present, UN-Habitat is Chair of the WASH Working Group of Strategic Priority
Area on Vulnerable and marginalized populations have equitable
access and use of quality services under the One UN Programme 2013-2017 and is
actively represented in the Shelter, WASH and Community Restoration clusters in
KP & FATA.

About WSSP:

The Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar (WSSP) is a newly established
urban utility in Peshawar as a public limited company, registered with the
securities and exchange commission of Pakistan, (SECP), fully owned by
government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, under the companies Ordinance, 1984. It has
become the first water and sanitation company in Pakistan to have urban water
and sanitation services delivered by ring fenced; fully autonomous,
professionally managed and corporate governed utility. The geographical area of
WSSP comprises of 45 urban and 22 semi-urban union councils.

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